Clevelanders root for Red Sox in Indians loss

When he looked up in the stands, C.C. Sabathia was disappointed.
When he looked at the scoreboard, he was even more disappointed.
Boston scored a run in the fourth inning and right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka made it stand up Tuesday night as the Red Sox escaped with a 1-0 victory over the Indians at Jacobs Field.
The crowd of 39,339 was, at least by volume, not exactly root, root, rooting for the home team. Tuesday’s balance of fan power may even have been tipped a bit less toward the visitors than on Monday, when Cleveland fans were decidedly shouted down by their Boston counterparts during a 6-2 Red Sox win in the series opener.
“Honestly, yeah, it does bother me,” said Sabathia, who allowed one run over seven innings. “It’s a big homestand for us. It’s a little embarrassing to have so many Boston fans, people shouting ‘Youuuu’ when (Kevin) Youkilis comes up. That’s not Cleveland. It’s a little disappointing.”
To be fair, Indians hitters have done little in the series to rouse a corps of shrieking zealots. Cleveland has been shut out in 17 of the 18 innings over the first two games of the four-game set.
The Indians managed just four hits in seven innings off Matsuzaka (12-7), then meekly went down in order against relievers Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon in the eighth and ninth.
“(Matsuzaka) did a good job keeping us off-balance,” Indians second baseman Josh Barfield said. “He got ahead (in the count) a lot. We just missed some balls, some that we hit out to the (warning) track. We were always one swing away or one at-bat away from getting something going.”
Cleveland appeared to have something going in the first inning. Three batters reached safely, but two hit into force outs. Matsuzaka then got out of the inning by striking out Jhonny Peralta with the bases loaded.
“You don’t know when you’re going to get chances like that again,” manager Eric Wedge said. “If you don’t capitalize, it might come back to bite you a little bit.”
Ben Francisco led off the seventh with a single to left, but Youkilis charged in from first base to field Barfield’s bunt and fired a throw to shortstop Julio Lugo, covering second, for the force out. Matsuzaka then finished off his workshift with two fly-ball outs.
“I thought it was a good enough bunt to get the guy over,” Barfield said.
Indians cleanup hitter Travis Hafner was 0-for-4 and is hitless in his past 16 at-bats, while Peralta is in a 1-for-16 slump. Grady Sizemore had two of Cleveland’s four hits Tuesday, and Ryan Garko’s fourth-inning leadoff double extended his hitting streak to 17 games.
The only Boston run off Sabathia (13-5) scored in the fourth inning.
Youkilis and Manny Ramirez came through with consecutive one-out singles, Ramirez improving his career average against Sabathia to .476 (10-for-21). Coco Crisp watched a called third strike for the second out, but Mike Lowell dropped an RBI single into left field, just in front of the glove of a diving Francisco.
Wedge suggested the rookie outfielder initially broke back on Lowell’s shallow fly ball, and Francisco agreed.
“It was a big swing, and I froze on it a bit,” Francisco said. “It’s a play you’d like to make. I just came up a little short.”
Reach Repository sports writer Andy Call at (330) 580-8346 or andy.call@cantonrep.com.